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Just joined but have been a weight weenie for about 5 years. My original aim was to build a bespoke bike of 8.2kg for under 300€ buying replacing and selling pieces via websites. First try got me down to 9.4kg but now after 5 years of changing parts I'm down to 7.4kg including pedals with the total currently at 450€. Roughly 6.1 €cents per gram (4.9 UK pence or 7.8 US cents) By comparison paying 5000€ for a 6.8kg machine works out at 74 € cents/g.

Wondering if anyone else has tried the same personal bike build challenge? Let the competition commence!

I suggest taking a look round here as many people have sweated the details on their bikes to get the weight down, which will help you select the right parts. But seriously, 5 years of exchanging parts changing is not really the most economic way to get a light bike, particularly if you factor in postage, time to get to the post office etc... Better IMHO to spend your time making money then just buy a light but reasonably priced part once?

450 euros for a 7kg bike is pretty hard to beat... my 7kg bike cost me more like 6-7k USD.

That said, at some point you have to start considering the amount of effort involved.

Maybe multiply the minimum wage by the time you spent searching for parts and add that to the total? E.g., if you spent 200 hours searching for parts on ebay and elsewhere, and the min wage is at $7.5/hr in your country, then you should add $1500 to the total.

Time spent is part of the game, not a cost and all the time I've had an improving bike tailored to my requirements to attack all the mountain cols here in the alps.

I find the trick is to work out what loses most weight for the least outlay without thinking about fashion ie carbon v alu and then waiting for the right piece at the right price - it's a game. For instance I could lose 250g by fitting Prolite Bracciano wheel (300€) and selling the ventos in France for 120€, net 180€, but by buying some Ti skewers from HK I can drop 70g for 10€ - much better value per gram.

Hi. i would like to see some pics of the bike. If you are ready for some drillium, this is an excellent post about Easton seatpost tuning: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=69167&hilit=easton+seatpost+tuning" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; From your build list I can see that there is potential for maybe 200 g.weightloss on your groupset. After the "new" SRAM red was released, you can get some good prices on the old version. The weight on the shifters and derailleurs are almost the same as the new version. If you have any extra spacers on your headtube, you should of course remove these and cut your fork accordingly. (probably done that already) Also check that your cables are not unneccesarily long, and that you don't have more bar tape than you actually need. But the main component to upgrade would be your wheels. Even if you save some grams on skewers and small bits, you could loose over a pound on a lightweight set of clinchers. Maybe you can find some used custom built ones for a good price? Good look with your hunting.

Why does Shimano paint their groupsets the way they do? If i wanted fifty shades of grey - I'd buy the book.

Update - unfortunately the Stronglight pulsion crankset broke so have had to replace with a with a PZ Race Components CR3.3 alloy crankset. gaining 200g in the process. Combined with the Ti BB it still works out out 825g complete so not bad and comparable with a mainstream carbon crankset with integrated BB. Sold the remaining LH Stronglight crank on ebay france for more than I paid for the whole crankset . £26 for the PZ cranks in mint condition but just missed out on a bargain front wheel American Classic Mag300 at only 525g. Think I'll keep an eye out for a pair!

Latest news on my Cinelli Starlight, busy changing parts during the winter lay-off and got some great bargains. Prolite Bracciano wheel set weighing in at 1510g including tape, pedals changed to Xpedo Thrust 8 Ti - 175g, Crankset now FSA Carbon Pro Compact ISIS - 540g, new lock ring 5g, new ti skewers 44g. Yet to put it together for final weight but expecting 6.9kg including pedals. Soon as it's built up I'll post a photo!

Are you still inside the 300€ budget? It makes wonder if you ve ever been tempted to overlook the budget and go for a "can't miss that" chance!Anyways, the result is definitely impressive! Great job there!

+1 on your comment about enjoying the journey. You could rush right out and buy everything tomorrow (assuming you're made of $$$), but you'd miss the up's and down's of the journey.

Bummer about the Pulsion crank. Was it a Stronglight? Seems they have a reputation for that, but boy oh boy did they look the business just a few years ago. I wanted that crank, but could never pull the trigger.